Escape
by Faithslaysvamps
Summary: The usual patrol. Buffy and Faith great friends, but after a fight with some vampires Buffy realizes that Faith is missing. Buffy and the gang search for a way to help save Faith, as Faith struggles to find a way to escape.
1. Chapter 1: Where'd She Go?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

'Escape'

Chapter 1

'Where'd She Go?'

"God, its friggin' dead tonight," Faith said to Buffy. They were patrolling the streets of Sunnydale on a particularly quiet night. Buffy was eighteen years old and in her senior year of high school. Faith on the other hand was seventeen years old, and had dropped out of high school. Buffy and Faith had only met a few months back, but hey had already grown close. They were great friends.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "In about five minutes if nothing shows up, I'm going home." Faith shook her head agreeing. "What time is it anyway?" Faith glanced down at her watch.

"Almost midnight," she answered. Buffy, not given time to respond to her, pushed Faith onto the ground. She kicked the knife out of the vampire's hands that was standing behind Faith. Faith turned to see what was going on. Buffy was fighting a vampire, and his two friends were headed towards Faith. She ran at the two vampires and flying side kicked one in the chest. He flew onto a car a few meters back.

Buffy saw the vampire out of the corner of her eye fly onto the car. Behind her, she heard the normal noise of fighting from Faith; just the yelling and grunting while fighting with a vampire. Buffy often made them too. Buffy heard an unusually load yell from Faith, but did not think anything much of it. She heard a silence behind her as she staked the vampire. She turned around and noticed that Faith was gone.

"Faith?" she said. She now yelled this time. "FAITH!?" There was no answer to Buffy's calls.

Buffy ran as fast as she could all the way back to Sunnydale High School. She ran through the hallways and kicked open the door of the library, and it slammed against the wall. She was her ex-watcher, Giles, who was sleeping in a pile of books, jerk awake.

"Buffy," he said putting his glasses back on his face. He saw the distressed look in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Faith," Buffy stopped to catch her breath. Giles now stood and walked toward her. "She's missing," Buffy finished of. Giles looked extremely puzzled.

"W-W-W-Wha," he stuttered. "How?"

She told him exactly what had happened.

Buffy took Giles to the exact location they had fought the vampires. She tried her best to re-enact where she was and what she was doing when she heard Faith scream. Giles bent down to examine the large pile of where the dust from both vampires fell. He scattered the dust and thinned it out. He picked up a medallion-like thing on a chain necklace.

"What's that?" Buffy asked curiously. Giles lifted up his glasses onto his face more.

"I don't know," he answered just as curious. "But I think I should take it back to the library and check into it."

"Alright British," Buffy said playfully punching him on the shoulder. "You do that and I'll head over to Faith's apartment and see if she's there. Just in case." There was a silence. "I'm not all that into the book stuff." She said to reassure Giles.

"Well, yes I suppose," He said. "Do hurry!" He yelled to her as she ran off.

Buffy knocked on the door to Faith's apartment. She didn't hear any sort of answer from inside, but she decided to go in and check anyway. She opened the door and saw only the slight glow of an alarm clock by her bedside, otherwise it was completely dark. Buffy ran her hand across the wall and found he light switch. She flipped the switch and the lights flickered for a few seconds and then turned on.

Faith's apartment was little more than a room with a bed and television, along with a bathroom. She had her bed made up neat, and there was a plate with a half eaten pizza on top of the TV. Buffy touched one of her fingers to it gently. It was cold, which meant that she hadn't just eaten it.

Buffy looked around for some sort of not that she might have left, or maybe something unusual.

"Did you find anything?" she asked Giles as she made her way into the library again. He was sleeping again.

"What?" he said as he jerked up yet again frightened. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Did you find anything?"

"Oh," he said as he paused and picked up the medallion and a book. "Yes, yes I did. What about you?"

"Nothing," Buffy said. "No blood, no creepy medallions… Hell, she didn't even leave a note!" Giles nodded his head.

"She wouldn't have time to leave a note if she was kidnapped would she?" Giles said to Buffy smartly.

"Okay," she said. "What'd you find?" Giles brought the large book and medallion to the check out counter. He put the medallion side by side with a picture in the book. They were identical. He tapped his finger on the picture in the book, and then read to Buffy the text around it.

"The symbol of the Lakfahlhu demon, Gregorios, is a very special medallion to his warriors." Buffy was sitting at a stool with her elbow resting on the table and her face pressed up against her hand.

"What's a LaCkahhakahakaFuloo demon?" she asked. Giles looked at her impatiently.

"A Lakfahlhu demon, is a very large demon that can only be defeated if you cut off his head and then burn his body." Buffy raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. Giles read on. "To earn the medallion you must be one of his greatest warriors. It is a great honor." Giles rubbed his hands over his eyes. He almost nodded off to sleep. Buffy was exhausted too.

"Well," She said. She looked at her watch; it was now 1 o'clock in the morning. "We'd better call it a night. I'm sure Faith can handle herself." Giles disagreed with Buffy about Faith being able to handle herself, but he said nothing and kept looking in his book. He almost nodded off to sleep again. Buffy looked down and smiled at him.

"Ok," Giles said. "But I'm going to get right back on it tomorrow morning, and we need to inform Wesley, he is her watcher."

"Ah it's fine." Buffy said back in return. "I bet you that tomorrow morning Faith will be sitting right there in that chair when you get here." Buffy said as she pointed at the table her and the gang always discussed things with. Giles raised and dropped his eyebrows and nodded his head.

"Yes well," he said. "We can only hope."


	2. Chapter 2: Get Me out of Here

Chapter 2

'Get me out of Here'

Faith was being dragged down a hallway by the back of her neck by a very large demon. She was practically paralyzed and could hardly breathe. He opened up a door and threw her into the room. She fell flat onto her face, and grabbed her neck where the demon grabbed her and gasped for air. She looked up at the demon and rolled onto her back, supporting herself with one elbow. The demon was very large, he was a maroonish brown color and he had four horns on the top of his head. He kicked Faith in the stomach and back down onto her back. Her head hit off of the hard tile floor.

"What do you want with me?" Faith asked coughing from her lack of air.

"Slayer," Gregorios said. Faith lifted herself into somewhat of a sitting position. She put her arms behind her and tried to stand. Before she could even get close to standing, Gregorios kicked her in the ribs. Faith went flying through the air and she hit the wall in the back of the room. She fell to the floor and lay in the crease where the floor and the wall meet. She grabbed at her ribs; she could feel that one had been broken. Faith was gasping for air when the large demon approached. She rolled over again onto her stomach. She held herself up with her elbows and she spat a mouth full of blood onto the demons foot. Then she looked up at the demon and smiled her teeth red of blood. Gregorios looked down at it in disgust. Her looked at Faith and smiled back. He then kicked Faith underneath her jaw. Her head jerked back hard and hit against the wall. Faith collapsed onto the floor again, but this time, she passed out.

Faith woke up only about an hour later, but she was cuffed to a wall, and she was in a different room. She sat up. Her head, ribs, and jaw were aching, and she was still short of breath. She tried to break out of the handcuffs by simply tugging on them with all of her strength, but she figured that she was so weak that she probably had less strength than a regular girl. She looked around the room. It was empty, there was a very old couch that had many rips and a stain on it, but that was about it. She tugged on the cuffs again. She had no luck. She heard a noise from outside.

"Lakif," she heard. She recognized the voice immediately. It was the demon son-of-a-bitch that had done all of this to her. "Go in there."

"Yes Gregorios," He said. 'Gregorios,' she thought. She smiled at this. She knew his name. She found this for some reason funny, but didn't know why. She figured that she was probably just delirious from hitting her head too many times. A vampire walked into the room. He wore a red robe and a beige colored belt around it. He pulled a knife out of his robe, and he approached Faith. Faith pulled and pulled on her chains even more. They were too tight into the wall. Lakif came closer to her.

Faith moved her leg a bit. Then she realized she still had power in her legs. She faced her body forward and brought her knees up to her chest. She wasn't super strong like normally, but she was strong.

The demon came closer. He knelt down besides Faith and her curled up body. He pulled out her wrist and put it on top of his leg. All Faith could do was sit there and watch. No words could escape from her mouth. The demon set the knife down on her wrist and began to slide it across her arm. She felt the pain shoot up all the way into her mouth. It was a very deep wound, and Faith didn't think she had ever gotten cut that deep before. She tightened her knees on her chest some more, and then released all of her energy that she was building up. She kicked the vampire right in the chest and he flew across the room.

More demons and vampires came into the room when they heard all of the noise from inside. The vampires headed towards the other vampire on the other side of the room, and the three demons that looked like Gregorios headed toward her. She tugged as hard as she could on the chains and they still didn't break. She was ready to fight as much as she could.

The first demon approached and she threw a kick up at him. He grabbed her leg in mid-air. He held it tightly and twisted it slightly. The other demons approached her. One reached into its robe pocket and pulled out a key. She was still squirming and trying to break free of the demon's grip and the chains. The demon with the key sat down beside her and so did the last demon. Faith attempted to punch the demon but was unsuccessful. Instead the demon without the key punched her instead, and held her down against the wall. She could not move at all.

The demon unlocked her from the handcuffs. Faith felt a rush of energy go through her body. She twisted her body and flip-kicked the demon that was holding her leg right in the face. Then she elbowed the other demon with the key in his nose and it crunched beneath her elbow. He ran away holding his nose like a giant baby. Faith stood up and kicked the last demon in its knee cap and it bent backwards and cracked in half. The demon fell to the floor whimpering. The demon got up and began to punch her in the face, but she was quick and grabbed his elbow pulling it out of its socket.

The vampires on the other side of the room saw the commotion and began to run towards Faith. Faith saw an open door and headed out. The hall she was running in was eerie. It was pretty much all cement, the floors, the ceiling, even the walls were cement. The only things that weren't cement were the very large metal doors that were scattered around every here and there. She wanted to hide in one, but every time she looked behind her she saw that the vampires were still on her tail. They would easily see where she hides and follow after her. She ran for about two minutes. She was really not going fast. She looked behind herself and saw that the vampires were gone. She stopped running and fell to the floor.

Faith sat herself up against a wall and tried to catch her breath. Her head began to throb and she clutched it from the back. She felt something strange on her hand it pulled it out in view of her eyes. There was blood on her hand. She put her clean hand behind her head in the same spot. She pulled it out and saw more blood on her hand. Then she saw the vampires run around the corner. She was, again, too weak to do anything so she let them do what they wanted.

They grabbed her by her armpits and carried her back down the hall and into another room. She could see Gregorios looking at her sitting on a dark sofa in a dark room with a small television glowing slightly. The two vampires threw her down onto the floor. Gregorios looked at her and then up at the vamps.

"Leave," he said. "But stay by the door." The vampires bowed and did what they were told. Faith did not look at Gregorios. Instead she just kept her head facing the ground. She had given up. Faith had never known how much of a quitter she was. It killed her to know that she was in this position. She saw a foot by her head. She rested her head on the ground because she had given up all hope.

The demon set his foot underneath Faith's chin, and lifted her head off of the ground. She propped herself up with her hands and looked at him. He smiled and said,

"You work for me".


	3. Chapter 3: Two Tasks

Chapter 3

'Two Tasks'

It was Saturday morning and Giles came quickly into the school library. Wesley, who was skimming through a book at a small table, looked up at him.

"Hello Rupert," he said.

"Have you seen Faith this morning?" Giles asked quickly.

"No," Wesley answered. "No I haven't. Why?" Giles told Wesley exactly what Buffy had told him, and also more about what he had found in research.

Buffy walked into the library and spotted Giles and Wesley talking about something in a book.

"Not here?" Buffy asked about Faith. Giles shook his head 'no'. "So she's gone," Buffy stated. "Do you know where she is?"

"We think she might be in another dimension," Wesley told her. Buffy walked over to see what they were looking at.

Faith had her hands tied together by rope, and a demon was dragging her down the hall. He kicked open the door and led her into a dark hallway where there were many kinds of demons and beasts in cages. It looked a lot like a dog kennel. He took her all he way to the back of the room and threw her into a cage. He locked the door and pulled Faith's hands out of the bars. He cut open and released her hands from the rope.

She walked back to the back where there was a cement bed and nothing else. This is what she would imagine a jail cell being like. She heard somebody, and it sounded like crying. She looked into the cell next to her and saw a woman sitting on the floor, sobbing. Faith walked closer to her.

"Hey," Faith said. The girl got quite and looked at her. "What's your name?" The girl stood up and walked to the bars in between her and Faith.

"Alex," the girl said confused. "What do you want?" she moved with caution as if she thought Faith would hurt her.

"What are you here for?" Faith said. Alex went over and grabbed a piece of paper from on top of her cement bed. She walked over and handed it to Faith. "What's this?" Faith asked. Then, she got a better look at the paper. The top read 'Menu'. "Oh," Faith said. "So you're dinner?" she smiled.

"Yeah," Alex said as she took the menu back. "What are you here for?" Faith looked at the girl.

"I dunno." She said. "That Gregorios dude told me he wanted me to work for him." Faith looked scared. "Did he say that to you?"

"Um… no," Alex said. Faith relaxed. 'Good,' she thought. 'Hopefully he won't eat her'.

"What do you think about getting out of here?" Faith asked. Alex's eyes widened and she shook her head, it was defiantly a 'yes'.

"How do we get there?" Buffy asked Giles

"I don't know," Giles answered. "Alkjiff is a very tricky dimension to get into." Buffy paused for a minute.

"Then you do know how to get there?" she insisted. Giles sighed at her.

"Technically yes," he said. "I know how to get there; I just don't know how to do it." Buffy opened her mouth and shook her head.

"Alright," she said. Just then the gang walked into the room; Xander, Willow, Cordy, Oz, and Anya.

"Hey guys," Xander said. "What's going on?"

"Faith's missing," Buffy answered. "How do you do it?" Buffy asked. Giles sighed.

"You need some ingredients to perform a very tricky spell," he answered.

"Oh a spell!" Willow said happily. "What kind of spell?" Wesley looked up from a book he was looking at.

"I don't think it would be too tricky," he said. Giles turned around and looked at Wes to see what he had found. Wesley rolled his eyes. "The truly tricky phase we need to get through is finding the five rare items needed to perform the spell."

"Yes," Giles agreed. "What about them?"

"I think we already have two."

"Where?" Buffy asked.

"Whoa guys," Xander interrupted "What are we talking about?" Cordelia took a seat in a chair at the table.

"Xander," she said. "Shut up and listen. Maybe, you'll find out."

"Well," Wesley said. "The five ingredients that we need are teeth of a vampire, dust of a vampire, claws of a Kuhyla demon, eyes of an Adelsif demon, and blood of a slayer."

"Okay," Buffy said. "Where are the items that we have?"

"Well, actually," Wes said. "We technically have three, the Adelsif demon eyes, and the Kuhyla demon claws; they are downstairs."

"In the school?" Buffy said. Giles shook his head.

"He's right," he said. "Wesley is right about it not being too tricky. I guess I exaggerated."

"I'll go get those claws and eyes." Wesley said.

"I'll go too!" Willow said.

"I'll follow the Willster," Oz said as they headed out the door. Cordy was twiddling her hair.

"So…" Xander said. "Blood of the Slayer; fun, fun." Buffy gave Xander a sarcastic smile.

"Hey Xander," she said. "Do you want to come with me to Angel's so we can get some teeth?" Xander stood up.

"Sure thing," he said. "Cordy?" she laughed.

"No," she said. "I don't even know why I came here in the first place. I'm heading home." Xander clapped his hands together.

"Okay," he said. "You all cool here Giles?" he asked.

"Fine, thank you," Giles answered. Buffy and Xander headed out.

Faith was trying to pick the lock on her cell with a pin that was in her hair. It wasn't working AT ALL when she heard a door on the other side of the room open. She pulled the pin out of the lock and ran to sit on her bad. Alex was sitting on her bed too chewing on her fingernails.

The same demon that had put Faith in the cell approached her again. Faith walked over to him at the door of the cell as he opened it up. He grabbed her by the arm roughly and she kicked him in the stomach. He dropped the keys on the floor and punched Faith back in the face. Faith spun around and elbowed him in the neck and he fell to the floor.

Faith noticed that he was either passed out or dead, so she bent down and grabbed the keys. She fiddled and found the right one that opened Alex's cage.

"C'mon," Faith said to Alex while directing her out.

"Thank you," Alex said to Faith as they were running out into the halls of the building.

They were both getting tired and Alex was starring at her feet while she ran. Faith stopped quickly when she saw Gregorios come out of a door, but Alex didn't.

"STOP ALEX!" Faith yelled. Alex looked up and stopped running right at the foot of Gregorios. She was shaking and slowly looked up to the beast. He looked down at her and smiled, then instantly grabbed her neck and snapped it in half. Faith slowly backed away from Gregorios as he approached her.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her into a strange room.

"This is where you work," he said as he dropped her and she fell onto her face. He closed the door and left her there. Faith looked up and saw a lot of fire, and many strange other things. It was just like a factory. The demons in the huge room seemed to be making weapons for some reason, which Faith decided wasn't good. A demon came to her and lifted her up onto her feet.

"Are you the slayer?" he asked.

"No," Faith answered. The demon punched her across the face.

"You Lie!" he yelled. Faith flinched and looked to him. "Follow me." He said. He walked past the machines and the demons to another metal door. He opened it up and Faith saw what looked like an obstacle course. "You must make it to the other end and hit that black button on the other side."

"What's the catch?" Faith asked.

"Everybody who has tried, has died." He told her as he pushed her into a cage. It was a very small cage and she could barely fit. He hit another blue button on the wall, and the side walls sunk into the floor. An enormous crowd of demons and vampires were sitting in stands ready to watch Faith make her way through the course.

The cage hat Faith was standing in began to lift up off of the ground went high up into the air. It landed on a platform about one-hundred feet higher than the stands, and she looked down upon the beasts. She saw in front of her a clock that began counting down from ten, and she heard the demons below her chanting the count down. 'Three, Two, One'. Faith heard a gun shot and the cage opened.


	4. Chapter 4: The Twist

Chapter 4

'The Twist'

Buffy tapped on the door to Angel's mansion.

"Angel!" she called. "It's me! Buffy!"

"Come in!" Angel yelled from inside. Buffy cracked the door open to see where he was so the sunlight wouldn't hit him. He wasn't in the room so she opened it all the way to let Xander and herself in. "What's going on?" he asked them walking into the room.

"Faith's missing and we need to do a spell to get into another dimension we think she was taken to," Buffy answered him. Angel stood waiting for more. "We need claws and eyeballs of some demons, dust and teeth of a vampire, and slayer's blood."

"I'm telling you right now you're not staking me," Angel said with a smiled. Buffy and Xander both laughed.

"I just want a tooth," Buffy said. Angel nodded his head in agreement and put his hand in his mouth. He reached all the way to the back and pulled out a wisdom-tooth and wiped the blood on his t-shirt. He handed it to Buffy.

"Here you go!" he said pleased. Buffy tramped up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you so, so, so, so, so much Angel!" she said.

"Yeah thank you," Xander added in. "It was greatly appreciated."

"No problem," Angel said. Before Buffy and Xander walked out the door he said, "You won't need anymore body parts of mine right?" he said sarcastically. Buffy turned and smiled.

"Not for any case that needs solved," she smirked and sent Xander into a laughing fit. Xander pulled her out the door and they were back at the school in minutes.

"I'm afraid we're either going to need to wait until tonight, or we'll have to try and find a nest of vampires around here somewhere so that we can perform the spell," Giles said as Buffy and Xander re-entered the room and set Angel's tooth onto the check out counter.

"I've really been thinking about Faith lately," Buffy said. "I mean, slayers don't just go missing like that!" Buffy made a face that said she was deep in thought. "Faith's in trouble and we need to help her now!" There was a silence. Xander was the first to speak.

"That was a- a beautiful speech and all, but may I ask one question?" he said as the silence remained. "Did you JUST realize she needed help?" Buffy frowned.

"Shut up Xander!" she said sarcastically. "I'll go hunting," she said going in to find the weapons and pulling out a stake and a crossbow. "I'll search for a nest and bring back some vamp dust!" She said exiting the building. Giles picked up and observed Angel's tooth.

"That will do," Wesley said peeking up from a book. Willow looked around pleased.

"So," she said. "I can perform the spell… as long as you want me to that is." Willow smirked. Oz looked at the two watchers.

"Yes, yes I suppose you could," Giles stuttered placing all of the spell ingredients in front of him.

"So…" Willow said trying to bring up a conversation. "Adelsif eyes, Kuhyla claws, and Angel's tooth! What a fun spell! What do I have to do?" Giles looked at her and gestured for Wesley to bring over the book he was reading. Wesley did so and put the book on the countertop as they all looked at it.

"All you'll have to do is read this and add the ingredients one by one into the slayer's blood, but in less than a minute, or else it won't work properly." Giles answered Willow.

"That doesn't sound too bad!" Willow exclaimed. Then, she looked at the words in the book. "Oh," she said. "Well there are a lot of words there." Willow picked up the book and sat at the table. "Maybe… I should just look over this for a few minutes. Oz laughed and sat down next to her and began to spin a coin. Xander sat down also, but stared at the wall in front of him.

All was quiet for about an hour until Buffy arrived with a jar in her hands.

"Vampire dust anyone?" she said as she walked through the doors.

"Great!" Wesley said. "Let's prepare the spell." Giles set out a bowl and all of the ingredients as a foul odor spread throughout the room. Oz brought a rather large knife out from the weapons closet and handed it to Buffy.

"Oh thanks," Buffy said rolling her eyes sarcastically. She brought out her arm and pulled her sleeve up revealing her wrist. She poked the tip of the knife through her wrist and eventually had blood pouring strongly out of her arm. Once the bowl was half full Willow began reading the spell and slowly adding the ingredients in. She was pouring all sorts of Latin words out of her mouth when suddenly a wind blew and a portal opened on the other side of the room.

"Well done!" Giles shouted over the racket. "Grab your weapons and go through the portal." They all grabbed their weapons that were ready to go and headed in as quickly as they could into the portal.

Buffy waited out so everybody else could go through first, but as she went to jump in the colorful portal it closed and she was stuck in the library at Sunnydale High.

"Thought you were going somewhere did you slayer?" she heard from behind her. She turned herself around fast and saw a Lakfahlhu standing behind the counter.

"Gregorios," Buffy said under her breath. The demon spread his arms out.

"Very good slayer! Very good!" he returned his arms to his side and smiled. "Well, you guess my name, why don't I guess yours!" The sarcasm in his voice died down and it suddenly became deep and hollow. "Buffy."

"What do you want from me and what did you do to Faith?" Buffy demanded.

"Only the best for my slayers!" Gregorios said and his voice became less fierce and mellow. "C'mon come with me!" he had a smile on his face and gestured for her to follow. Buffy did not have a clue what to do, so under the pressure she followed him.

Outside it was bright, sunny, and just about lunch time as they walked down the street. Gregorios had a robe on with a hook over his face so his demon would not be seen by anybody. The walk was silent until then came to the place where Buffy had last seen Faith.

"Does this place look familiar?" Gregorios asked Buffy.

"This is where you took Faith isn't it?" Buffy asked. Gregorios shook his head.

"Yes, Yes it is," he stated and walked in a circle.

"You took her to that other dimension didn't you?" Buffy said.

"Of course not!" Gregorios answered and smirked towards Buffy. "But I see we fooled you all pretty good there!" Buffy was in wonder by what Gregorios was saying. "You see now, Buffy, we took Faith to that building right over there." Gregorios pointed to the abandoned building right across the street where a rusty stop sign was and a garbage can sat.

"Where are my other friends?" Buffy asked.

"Oh your watcher?" Gregorios laughed. Buffy shook her head 'yes' and sneered at him. "I'm sure they're in GREAT hands." Gregorios then observed the empty area around him, grabbed Buffy by the neck, and dragged her into the building.


	5. Chapter 5: Dimension and Desperation

Chapter 5

'Dimension and Desperation'

Faith cautiously walked out of the cage that she was in. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, or what the catch was; besides everyone has died in this course. In fact, all it seemed to Faith was a two mile long cage with a button on the other end. She also didn't understand what the cause was. Was it for their entertainment? Did the button do anything special? There was only one way to find out and that was to run the course.

She had only walked about 15 feet when a demon called out over the loud speaker. The demon instructed Faith to stop, and to come back because something had changed. Faith went back to the starting cage and looked down below her. The cage began to lower. When it hit the bottom it opened and Buffy was thrown in. She looked a little beaten up, but she pulled herself to her feet anyway. The cage began to rise again.

"New rule," Gregorios began to say. "New slayer." The crowd of demons grew silent as they listened closely to him. "I think we've got ourselves a pair that can beat it." Buffy and Faith exchanged looks of confusion. They didn't know if what they were doing was good, or bad.

They got to the top once more. The gun shot again and they stepped outside of the cage. This time the cage dropped the 25 feet back down to the ground, leaving Buffy and Faith up there for good. It was a clear track, just a cage. They walked silently through; they both could feel something was going to happen, they new it was going to be soon, but they didn't know what, so they were ready for anything to come their way.

Meanwhile, Giles, Wesley, Willow, Xander, and Oz were standing around in another building. There was pretty much nothing there at all. There was no living being, any furniture or anything. Wesley looked around.

"Where's Buffy?!" he exclaimed. "Buffy?" Giles and everybody else became a little frantic also. "Well this is not good." He continued on.

"Wait a minute," Oz said. "Think for a second and calm down. Is there any possible way that the portal could have closed before everyone was through?"

"No," Giles responded. "The only way that the portal closes is when all live energy has left the room, when nobody goes through the portal within 30 seconds, or if another…" he stopped for a second.

"Another what?" Xander said.

"If another life form closes the portal," Wesley finished. The tension in the room skyrocketed as they all knew something had taken Buffy also.

Buffy and Faith stopped walking at the same exact time. Their slayer senses were tingling. All of a sudden a trap door above them opened and a group of 20 some vampires fell into the course with them.

"Oh great!" Buffy said sarcastically while she pulled a stake from her jean jacket pocket. Faith tried to smile, but couldn't. She didn't have a weapon at all; they had all been taken away from her. She ducked a punch from one of the vampires as Buffy kicked on across the cage and staked the vamp attacking Faith.

"Thanks B," she said as she punched and kicked at the vampires like a mad woman. Then she looked at the ceiling and saw trap doors that cover most of the course they were in. "Uh, B, we're going to get a lot more action," she stated. Buffy looked up too.

"Yeah I can see that," she said staking a vampire and then tossing the stake to Faith as she staked two also. She tossed it back to Buffy.

"This'll be so fun!" she said sarcastically. Then she whispered to herself, "God I'm going to die."

Giles was pacing across the floor, back and forth in the empty room that they were in.

"I don't understand!" he exclaimed as he rubbed his glasses and then put them back on his face. "This is Alkjiff, the Lakfahlhu Demon's home dimension. They SHOULD be here." Wesley shook his head.

"But the portal was closed," he said. "By another living being; presumably it was a Lakfahlhu demon that closed it, probably Gregorios." Giles shook his head agreeing. Xander, Willow, and Oz were watching as they tried to catch on to what Wesley and Giles were getting at.

"Yes!" Giles agreed. "So possibly the Lakfahlhu demons tricked us, by coming to their deserted dimension, while they captured Buffy and Faith for… for…"

"Whatever grotesque plans they had for our slayers," Wesley finished off. Xander stiffened his back.

"That could lead to death right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Oz answered leaning over and whispering into Xander's ear. "Probably."

"Alright!" Xander said now beginning to walk around the room as Giles was once doing. "That's all I need to know. Let's find a way to get out of here and save Buffy."

"And Faith!" Willow added in. "You guys… do know a way to get out of here? Right?" Then her voice became quiet. "God I hope," she said. But the only thing that happened was Giles and Wesley exchanged concerned looks.

The vampires were now being demolished fast. Buffy and Faith's strategy by passing the stake back and forth was working greatly. There was only about three more now.

When all the vampires were finally piles of dust falling between the cracks of the metal cage the girls were in, Gregorios' voice became clear over a loudspeaker.

"Congratulations," he told the girls. "I particularly liked how, even though Faith had no weapon, you shared the stake and killed all the vamps." He then hit a button that was in front of him in the area he was in. Another trap door above them opened and a metal box came down. Once it hit the bottom of the course it opened up. Inside laid an ax, a sword, and a stake. "Inside, you will each take one of the big weapons, but takes a stake also for future tasks."

"Nice," Faith said as she picked up and inspected the axe. She then took the stake and tucked it into her shoe. Buffy took hold on the sword and looked at it also.

"For whatever the next task is," Buffy said. "I hope this kills the beast!"


End file.
